Mistake
by MaryandMerlin
Summary: We all make mistakes. Some have more consequences than others. RR/SS One-Shot


**Author's Note: I apologise, I hate writing in 1st person.**

 **Prompts:**

 **QLFC -** Round 1 - Write a writing style you've never written before. (1st person) Optional Prompts: (dialogue) "Your silence scares me."; (object) knife

 **GGE -** March 1 (Amber) - SalazarRowena - angst, broken glass, sanctuary, full moon

Word Count: 1107

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Mistakes

I had never expected it to come to this. I had seen the gap, the ever widening breach that yawned between us but I had ignored it. Wisdom, that is what they praised me for.

I had not been wise in this instance.

"Salazar," I whispered softly, so softly he did not hear me. His back was to the bank of sinks, his long dark hair and emerald robes reflected in the broken mirrors. The only other sound was the hiss of water from the broken taps.

His eyes darted frantically between the three of us, his knuckles white around his wand. He looked unhinged, like a wild animal. Not the man I had known and loved. Not the eyes I had woken up to, nor the lips that had kissed me. He was barely recognisable.

"Salazar," I murmured again, stepping forward. Something crunched under my foot and his eyes flew to me, the grip on his wand tightening.

"Don't," he instructed hoarsley. Something in his eyes at least remembered me, it was clear he didn't want to hurt me. I stepped forward. "DON'T!"

"Rowena, he's gone. It's past dealing with now. Step back," Godric urged. I looked at him, but he was fixated upon Salazar.

"You don't know that," I hissed.

"Look at this place! Look at what he has built, what he has raised. A child is dead! A child in our care!"

"Godric," Helena said placatingly, "this is perhaps not the best place."

"Should we protect him from the truth, Helena? His delicate feelings? What of the family? Her friends? Who will protect them now?"

I looked around the bathroom, such an innocent place. A female sanctuary, normally filled with gossip and giggles, but when we had arrived not so long ago there had been screams and sobs. Blood still leaked across the floor, billowing in the puddles that had formed. The creature had not just killed the girl with it's stare. It had made a meal of her.

"Salazar," I said turning back to him. I put my wand down, and upturned my palms, hoping to calm him. "We simply need to speak with you. We have find out what has happened, and how the creature got out of control. You know it must be found, that it must be eradicated."

"No," he snarled, eyes flashing. "I will not let you."

"Please, Salazar." My voice wobbled and I strove to master my emotions. "We can fix this, us, the school. It doesn't have to end like this."

"You will not touch it!" he insisted.

"He will not be reasoned with, Rowena," Godric barked, "we must act. Now!"

He must have sensed the tension reaching a breaking point, for before any of us could act, Salazar lashed out with a spell that sent me flying. I skidded across the wet ground into a wall and my vision went dark.

X

Everything hurt when I came around. The light from the full moon filtered in through the large windows, turning the puddles into liquid silver. My eyes were sore, and as I lifted a hand to rub them, I was surprised to see them come away wet and coated in blood. My blood.

Footsteps clinked through the broken glass and I looked around. Godric and Helena lay on the ground not far from me, Godric looking unharmed but Helena had a long gash across her cheek. I struggled to my feet as Salazar came towards me through the gloom and smashed glass.

He stopped a few steps away and I could see some of his hysteria had calmed. He looked more like the man I had loved for all these years.

"What have I done?" he whispered to me. His dark eyes were unreadable. A beat passed. "Your silence scares me."

"I don't know," I replied softly as I reached up to my forehead, finding it sticky. "What happened Sal? What happened to you, to us?"

"I started to hate it, Rowena. All of it. The children, the time. It was distracting me from my work, my great purpose. It wasn't so bad when they were worthy children, but when my time, my precious, valuable time was being wasted on that, that scum. It's not as if pure blood stains these floors, Rowena. She was only a muggle child."

I closed my eyes, each of his words striking me like a knife to the heart. It had always been a sore point between us. His ideals of blood purity divided us, as did the lengths he went to, insisting that we prioritise purity here at Hogwarts too. That was when the crack had splintered between us, when we ignored him and let the children in. Ten years ago we had shared a tower, now he was sequestered in a dungeon.

"All children are worthy of learning their heritage and wielding the power that was given to them, safely and for good." My words were quiet, measured.

His beautiful mouth twisted into a sneer. "Given? Stolen, you mean! How else would they get the magic. It is inherited! It cannot simply manifest."

"I will not have this argument with you again, Salazar! It has gone too far. A child, an innocent child has died for your idiotic ideals. Your belief in supremacy! You cannot be allowed to roam free. The creature will be found and dealt with, so tell me where it is."

"I have sealed the chamber, Rowena, and even you with all your wisdom and cleverness do not have the power to find or open it. Only one of my own will carry on the legacy I have left. Perhaps they will finish the work I have started."

I glanced around and spotted the hawthorne wand lying not far away. I could make it, I knew I could and cast a spell before he had a chance to escape. "You will be stopped," I told him, edging away from the wall. My head span and I fought down the nausea rising in my throat at the movement.

His answering smile was sad, as if he knew something I didn't. "You are so beautiful and so clever Rowena. Perhaps this path I started on was a mistake. We had some of the happiest times together. I will cherish them, I hope you know that."

"We have all made mistakes, Salazar. Perhaps those memories will keep you warm in your cell," I said, my voice shaking with fury as I lunged for the wand and cast a binding charm with a sickening twist of my body. My shoulder spasmed in protest as I hit the ground but the spell was already flying in his direction.

It bounced harmlessly off a mirror and onto the broken floor.

He was already gone. I was left alone in the dark and wet, surrounded by broken glass and broken hearts.

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 **Much Love, MaryandMerlin**


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